PHILADELPHIA – An electric crowd witnessed one of the best performances of the season from the La Salle men's basketball team inside Tom Gola Arena at TruMark Financial Center on Saturday afternoon, witnessing the Explorers trim a 15-point second half deficit on their way to grasping onto a 62-60 win over the Dayton Flyers on Senior Day.
 
In a day that began honoring the four La Salle seniors, it was a freshman that stole the spotlight in the second half. Khalil Brantley scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half, helping spark a 17-0 run that helped the Explorers upset a surging Dayton squad to spurn a five-game losing skid.
 
The Explorers move to 8-18 on the year, increasing to 3-13 in the Atlantic 10 after the win. Dayton, who entered the game with 12 wins in the last 14 contests, fall to 20-9 and 12-4 in conference play.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Kyle Thompson and Andrew Lafond grabbed their first start of their Explorer career, the two of them joining Clifton Moore and Jack Clark in the starting lineup as all four seniors were recognized before the game.
• Moore started off in attack mode, grabbing six points in the opening minutes before being hampered by a pair of fouls.
• Trading blows to start the opening 10 minutes of the game, the Flyers used full-court pressure to harass the Explorers, able to take advantage to get out to a 24-14 lead.
• Clark stopped the bleeding, knocking down a three from the top of the circle to cut the deficit to seven.
• Entering the game as the 11^th best defense in the country, Dayton stifled the Explorer offense to just 19 points in the first half, holding a 30-19 lead at the break.
• The Flyers extended their lead to 15 in the opening action of the second half, but soon saw the Explorers make a run. Moore found the bottom of the net twice in as many possessions, helping spark a 7-0 spurt to cut the deficit to eight at the second half's first media timeout.
• On the other side of the break, the Explorer run continued with an additional 10 points before Dayton was unable to stop the bleeding, not before the Explorers took their first lead since early in the contest (14-13 LAS).
• The Explorers used the new-found momentum to increase their advantage by as many as seven after Jhamir Brickus went into the paint and powered his way to a finish at the rim.
• Each punch from the Flyers saw a counterpunch thrown from La Salle, extending the lead each time Dayton trimmed the deficit to a one possession game after both teams traded seven straight possessions with a basket.
• After Brantley knocked down his pull up jumper to give him 17 points, the Explorers gained another healthy advantage at 61-55 with 2:28 remaining in the game. The next trip down, Dayton more than halved the deficit after Koby Brea hit a three while being fouled to cut the Explorer lead to two.
• The Explorer defense held over two minutes, DaRon Holmes II splitting a pair at the line with 41 seconds to score the only point in the remaining two minutes for Dayton. La Salle's offense failed to create separation, the Flyers forcing a shot clock violation on the final Explorer possession.
• Leading 61-60 in the final 12 seconds, the Explorers called on their defense to make a stop. Dayton went to the hot hand of Brea, who's deep contested three clattered off the iron and came into the grateful arms of Moore with what showed as zeros on the clock.
• After a lengthy deliberation following a scuffle between the two teams, a double-technical was assessed by each team along with a personal foul from Dayton that sent Moore to the line for a one-and-one with 0.1 seconds remaining.
• Moore knocked down the first before purposely missing the second, the Flyers unable to get a last second attempt off as La Salle completed its largest comeback of the season, edging past Dayton by a 62-60 score.

 
GAME NOTES

• Brantley finished with a team-high 17 points for La Salle, finishing 6-7 from the field after an 0-3 start.
• Moore reverted back to his usual ways after failing to score in double-digits against Fordham, breaking a 14-game streak. The Ambler native finished with 16 points and seven rebounds, adding three blocks. Moore moves one shy of tying Aaric Murray's 2009-10 campaign of 70 blocks that sits third all-time in Explorer history. Moore is eight shy of tying the program record holder, a man whose jersey hangs in the rafters at Gola – Lionel Simmons recording 77 blocks in the 1987-88 season.
•  Clark registered one rebound shy of his third-career double-double, finishing with 13 points and nine rebounds. Also adding two steals, one of his most important stats proved to be his lone block with just over a minute remaining that kept the Flyers off the board.
• Conceding 12 points off turnovers in the first half, the Explorers played a cleaner second half by allowing zero points off just three second half turnovers.
• La Salle dominated the glass 38-29 over one of the most dominant rebounding teams in the country, Dayton entering the game outrebounding opponents by an average of seven boards per contest. The advantage led to a 15-5 margin in second chance points for the Explorers.
• The Explorers held Dayton to 60 points, tied for the second fewest allowed by La Salle in conference play alongside the last game against Fordham. Dayton's defense averaged 60.3 points per game allowed, the Explorers proving to record a significant two points over their opponent's average.
• After shooting 25.0% in the first half, the Explorer offense exploded to knock down 16-28 (57.1%) from the field in the second as they finished just north of 40% for the game. The defense limited a Dayton team that averaged 48.0% from the field to just a clip of 41.8%.
• The Explorers are now 7-1 when holding a lead heading into the final five minutes of a game.
• Dayton entered 17-1 when heading into the locker room with a halftime lead and 7-0 when allowing 60-69 points in a game.
• Holmes and Brea each finished with game-highs of 18 points, the only two Flyers to enter double figures. Malachi Smith added nine points and nine assists.

 
UP NEXT

• The Explorers play in their final contest inside Tom Gola Arena on Wednesday evening, taking on Saint Joseph's in a Philadelphia Big 5/Atlantic 10 showdown.
• The ESPN+ broadcast is set for a 7 p.m. tip.